"The tapestry is designed to slow the political process because all government interventions in the processes of society's spontaneous order are presumptively of dubious legitimacy. This is so because the government is presumed to not be a disinterested umpire but rather to be responsive to factional interests. This is now more frequently true than ever, and it is certain to become even more often true as government becomes bigger, more intrusive, and more opaque."
- George Will

Rap artist Cardi B has a very not-safe-for-work rant about the government shutdown, viewed millions of times in less than a single day. It's unlikely that the same number of people will read, say, the Federalist Papers this year -- so what does that say about our self-government? Should we expect more nose-in-the-books behavior, or are off-the-cuff celebrity video rants the new standard?

Here's a test: Judge politicians and candidates by how much their speeches differ from the typical laundry list of utterly unfulfillable promises made by kids campaigning for student council. A whole lot of them fail by that yardstick. Then don't hesitate to hold them accountable for the "good behavior" that James Madison wrote about.